Avocado works best when you treat it as a source-finding assistant, not a substitute for legal advice. Ask clear questions, insist on quoted passages, and check the linked documents yourself.
Foundations
Five rules that improve every answer
- Ask Avocado to search — say “search Avocado Legal” or “use the Avocado connector” so the AI actually queries the corpus.
- Demand quotes — ask the AI to quote the exact source text before summarising. If there is no quote, treat the point as unverified.
- Check the link — open the source document and read the passage in context.
- One topic per question — narrow questions retrieve better material than broad “tell me everything about X” requests.
- Say when nothing was found — if Avocado returns no useful passage, do not let the AI fill the gap from general knowledge without telling you.
What is in the corpus
Match your question to the right material
Legislation & regulations
Acts, regulations, proclamations, and official government legal texts.
Use for: “What does the Act require?”, statutory definitions, commencement, penalties.
Case law & judgments
Court decisions from the Constitutional Court, SCA, High Courts, Labour Court, and related tribunals.
Use for: precedents, interpretation of statutes, procedural rulings in reported judgments.
Rules & court procedure
Uniform Rules, court practice directives, and motion-court guidelines.
Use for: time limits, service, urgent applications, filing requirements, leave to appeal.
Commentary
Secondary material — journals, law reform reports, and explanatory writing.
Use for: background and context. Commentary is not binding authority unless you are researching commentary itself.
Question patterns
Prompts that work well
Tell the AI to search Avocado and quote sources. Adapt the bracketed parts to your matter.
Statutory provision
Search Avocado Legal legislation for the requirements to [obtain a licence / register a company / lay a criminal charge] under [Act name or subject]. Quote the relevant sections verbatim and give the source link.
Case law on a point
Using Avocado Legal case law, find judgments on [issue — e.g. dismissal for operational requirements / prescription of a debt / admissibility of hearsay]. Quote the key passages and cite the case names and neutral citations.
Court rules & procedure
Search Avocado Legal rules and procedures for the requirements to bring an [urgent application / application for leave to appeal / rule 30 application]. Quote the rule or practice direction text and link the source.
Known citation or Act number
Look up [Act 55 of 1998 / [2020] ZACC 5 / Uniform Rule 6] in Avocado Legal. Show exact metadata matches first, then quote the most relevant passages.
Compare or trace the law
Search Avocado Legal for [topic]. Quote passages on the current position. If any retrieved material appears superseded, label it clearly and identify what replaced it.
Search terms
Keywords that sharpen retrieval
- Use South African legal terms — “applicant”, “respondent”, “particulars of claim”, “section 34”, not generic synonyms alone.
- Include the court or forum — “Labour Court”, “High Court Gauteng”, “CCMA”.
- Name the instrument — “Companies Act 71 of 2008”, “Uniform Rule 30”, “PAJA”.
- For procedure, name the relief or step — “summary judgment”, “rescission”, “condonation”, “security for costs”.
- If the first search is thin, add a second narrower query rather than one very broad question.
Workflows
Practical research sequences
Drafting a letter of demand or founding affidavit
- Search legislation for the substantive duty or cause of action.
- Search case law for how courts have applied that provision.
- Search rules for any procedural prerequisites (prescription, jurisdiction, form).
- Quote only passages you have verified; build your draft from those sources.
Urgent application checklist
- Search rules and practice directives for urgency requirements and time limits.
- Search case law for how “urgency” has been assessed on similar facts.
- Ask the AI to list what the retrieved sources require — and what they do not cover.
Opinion or memorandum
- State the legal question in one sentence.
- Run separate Avocado searches for legislation, leading cases, and (if needed) commentary.
- Require a short synthesis where each proposition cites a quoted passage.
- Flag gaps explicitly: “Not found in Avocado results.”
Reading answers
How to judge a good Avocado response
Reliable
- Quotes exact wording from a source
- Provides a link or document reference you can open
- Distinguishes legislation from case law from commentary
- Says when the corpus has nothing on point
Be cautious
- Confident summary with no quoted text
- Foreign or outdated law presented as current SA law
- Commentary treated as binding precedent
- AI “fills in” gaps after a weak search
Setup
Other AI clients
Claude Desktop is the simplest path. Other tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) can connect with technical setup help. Start at the get started page or email scholtzap@gmail.com.
Reporting problems
Flag bad or missing sources
If a result looks wrong — garbled text, wrong document, outdated law, or a broken link — tell the AI to flag it for review, or email support with:
- Your question
- The document title or link shown
- What was wrong